The invention relates to a network system, and more particularly relates to a method and apparatus for re-assigning network addresses to a plurality of network servers by re-configuring a client host connected to the network servers.
Network systems have been utilized for connecting terminals, such as personal computers (PCs), workstations, etc., in different locations. In recent years, WAN systems have been widely implemented to provide connections for terminals in distant areas and provide Internet services. In a WAN system, typically a WAN concentrator is used as a diskless network server which connects terminals at one area to terminals at another distant area to facilitate communications between them. When a terminal at one area intends to communicate with a terminal at another distant area through the WAN network via a WAN concentrator, it sends a request with a specific network address (i.e., an IP address) to the WAN concentrator serving the sending terminal. When the WAN concentrator receives the IP address and recognizes it as its own IP address, it will facilitate the communication accordingly.
In a typical network arrangement, a CPU of a terminal, referred to as a client host, is connected to a number of network servers distributed in many different sites for example in a company. When there are changes to network connections due to, e.g., addition of network servers or re-allocation of workload among the network servers, it is desirable to re-assign the IP addresses of all the network servers so that the IP addresses are synchronized to one another. Conventionally, re-assignment of the IP addresses of network servers are accomplished by resetting the network servers by powering them off and then perform re-configuration operations on the network servers. The IP address re-assignment is done directly on each network server at the individual network server sites. When there are numerous changes to network connections occurring at different times, the amount of time required for individually re-configuring and re-assigning IP addresses to the network servers is tremendous.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system that allows re-assignment of the IP addresses of the network servers more efficiently.